Standing Up
by Sidekickwannabe
Summary: No one had ever dared questioned the mysterious Pluto who lived in the mists of the time dimension, no one had ever had the guts to go head to head against her. Until now...


Standing Up..  
  
"So it must be."  
  
Raye's head perked up. The voice that came from behind her was familiar to her, yet it still rang with the mystery that it had held for thousands of years. She groaned as she moved her stiff limbs, her already healing wounds stretching almost painfully with her movement. Her eyes were sore, the light of the afternoon almost blinding her from having her eyes closed while being unconscious for so long.   
  
Raye stood and frowned as she looked around her. Her beloved Temple was no more. Instead there was what used to be her home, a broken, twisted mound of wood and metal, debris covering the grounds that her grandfather had once so carefully tended. Her friends, the Sailor Senshi, lay unconscious around the area as though they'd been carelessly scattered on purpose, in positions similiar to the one Raye had found herself in only moments ago.  
  
She turned slowly to the voice that had spoken. Sailor Pluto, the only senshi that did not look beaten or battered, stood proudly, her hand resting lightly on her large, staff like Time Key.   
  
"Serenity is dead. Endymion is dead. And so it must be."   
  
The Time Guardian's voice held no emotion as she spoke and Raye, looking deep into the woman's eyes, saw no emotion even there. Pluto nodded, taking Raye's silence as an acknowledgement and turned to leave.   
  
Raye stood, shocked. A thousand emotions hit her. Dead. Serenity and Endymion. Dead. Gone. Lost to her forever. The two people she had lived and died for were gone. No, she shook herself mentally, it could not be. But even as the words floated through her mind she knew it was true. She could feel it within her. The loss, the emptiness in her heart and entire soul screamed out for what she no longer had. Her heart broke and she wanted to cry out loud for her loss. But instead, another emotion over took her. Anger. Anger that Serenity and Endymion's lives had been so forcefully taken, anger that she was unable to save them, anger that Pluto had been able to accept their deaths so easily.   
  
"Stop!!" Raye's voice echoed through the empty grounds. Pluto froze but did not turn. Although every part of her body screamed out in protest, Raye ran to face the Time Guardian. "Just who the hell do you think you are?!" She demanded.   
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
Raye's eyes narrowed at the psuedo innocence in Pluto's eyes. "Shut up! I don't want to hear anything you have to say! For once I'm going to speak and you're damn well going to listen!" Pluto nodded. "Who the hell do you think you are? You watch us fight for our lives without raising a finger to help us, you watch us loose! You watch THEM die and you do nothing! You show up after everything is over to announce our defeat and you do nothing as we are forced to suck up our grief and move on! They're dead!! Dead! My best friend and my soulmate - OUR FUTURE - are dead and all you say is 'So it must be.' How dare you? How dare you treat us as if we have no emotions and how dare you belittle their deaths and desecrate their memories as if they meant nothing to you?! How dare you?!"  
  
"Are you through?" Pluto asked softly. Raye nodded, unable to speak for her emotions had overwhelmed her. Pluto's voice was soft but firm. "Now you listen to me. You have no idea what I go through. You think only of what you feel, your loss. Now think of mine. Yes, I watched you loose; yes, I watched them die. I did nothing. I could not interfere. I cannot interfere. It is my duty, my sacrifice made for my allegiance to Queen Serenity. I can only watch, I can only be sure that the events which occur occur naturally in the timeflow. And with such duty as I have, come the limits I must place upon myself with the relationships with those over whom I watch. I must not allow myself to feel to loss you show so easily. And if I do, Gods forbid it to be shown. I feel their loss, Raye Hino, I feel it greatly. I love those two people just as you do, if not more since I have watched them grow from infant to adult. They are like my children, they were the children I will never have and they became my friends. I desecrate no one's memories. I honor their memories in the knowledge that their deaths are the way it must be and moving on quickly with my life, instead of wallowing in my loss as you do. So it must be!!" Her hand tightened on the key. "You have no idea who I am and what I go through and I suggest that you examine your own life before you point out the flaws in others."   
  
With that, Pluto walked past Raye into the mists, the heels of her boots clicking on the concrete.   
  
"So it must be.."   
  
Raye's anger hit a boiling point just as the rest of the Senshi were regaining consciousness and use of their limbs. She stared at Pluto's retreating form. "You bitch!" The words were half growled half screamed. Raye ignored every ache in her body and ran to catch up with Pluto. "You're a traitor to us all!"  
  
Pluto stopped and turned, her expression calm but her red eyes flashing with anger, as Raye continued.   
  
"You're a traitor! You've always been a traitor to the crown, that's why you are who you are, that's why you're banished to the Time Gates for eternity! Because you care nothing for the crown, or the legacy of the Moon Kingdom! You care only for yourself. You're a traitor to anything good and pure! You always have been and you always will be!"  
  
Pluto's eyes narrowed, giving in to the anger that was beginning to resonnate. The more Raye yelled, the less she felt able to control herself any longer. But still she tried to stop Raye, knowing that Raye would eventually regret her actions. "I don't wish to fight you, Mars. You're upset about Serenity and Endymion, go home and rest. You will feel better in the morning."  
  
Mars lunged at Pluto but Uranus, the second to recover after herself, caught her almost in mid-air. "No, Mars, no! It's not worth it! Pluto's right. You're upset, you'll regret this later." Mars fought against her hold. "Stand down, Mars!"  
  
Pluto tried to smile. "I do not want to fight you, Raye, or anyone."  
  
"You killed them." The words were so soft, so barely spoken. But Raye knew exactly what she had said and why. Her voice grew louder. "You damned them to their deaths with your god damned indifference!"  
  
"Uranus, let her be," Pluto commanded calmly. "Mars is upset but she knows what she is doing. This is what she wants. Let me give her the satisfaction of taking the legendary Sailor Pluto on."  
  
"Pluto... She's wounded. You'll kill her," Uranus replied softly in protest.  
  
"Let her be, Uranus." Uranus nodded and loosened her hold. Pluto gripped her Time Key loosely in her hands and looked Mars in the eye.   
  
Mars let a shriek out and charged, intending on having this out once and for all, and without the use of their powers. Raye knew Pluto was stronger in that area, that all it would take was one good hit with the Dead Scream to take Raye out, and she was determined to beat Pluto. Pluto ducked the left swing Raye made and retaliated with one of her own, aiming low and hitting Raye square in the stomach. Raye was caught off guard from Pluto's speed; Pluto knew she had the advantage. One didn't spend hundreds of years alone without having some kind of hobby. She had studied under the greatest marital artists and the hours alone gave her plenty of time to perfect her skill.   
  
Blow after blow was dealt and each one was blocked. Pluto moved with a grace none of the other senshi, all of them having regained consciousness, had ever seen. Raye was too angry, letting her emotions control the power and speed of her attacks and her fighting style was sloppy, leaving herself open to Pluto. Within minutes, the fight was over. Mars sat gasping, trying to catch her breath while Pluto stood over her, barely showing any signs of exertion.  
  
Pluto bent to pick up her staff. "It's over, Mars. Let it be," she said gruffly. She took a deep breath and walked around Raye.  
  
"You're still a traitor," Raye replied. "Beating me in a fist fight does not change that."   
  
"Think what you must, Mars. My job is done, my work with you is through. I will not see you again."  
  
"I'll count it."  
  
"So it must be.."  
  
The words echoed in Raye's throbbing head. She frowned, wiping her tears away with a dirty hand. Raye took a deep breath, wondering if she would ever see Pluto again, and stood. Amy and Mina and Lita were waking and she would need to attend to them. She didn't care that she had been put in her place by Pluto, there was small pleasure in having finally stood up to the woman. No one had ever dared questioned the mysterious Pluto who lived in the mists of the time dimension, no one had ever had the guts to go head to head against her. Until now. She, Raye Hino, who in the midst of earth shaking loss, had been the only one to stand up to Sailor Pluto.   
  
~End~  
  
  
AN: Update 2/11/03: Okay, this came about from a conversation I with an online buddy. We both thought that it's about time someone stood up to Pluto. Thus the idea for this was born. I originally wrote it in about an hour which is record speed for me but after posting the original here on FF, I had a couple reviews telling me it needed to be longer. For coming from an almost fatal case of writer's block - damn television! - I have actually written more on this than I have anything in the last 9 months. I escaped from writing for a while hoping that the block was temporary but it hasn't worked. I'm just now forcing myself to write again. I've got an original SM fic that I haven't touched to try to jump start me as well as the idea that the first online image I see gets a fic centered around it. Also, Pluto's come back to Raye about being forced to be hands off was something I've been holding onto for a long time now and it finally has it's place. I really like this fic. I hope you do, too! ^_~ 


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